This review may contain spoilers
One thing this drama sets up to do is that it's story is quite simple, it never tries to fall into other drama's gimmicks, like amnesia, moving the plot forward by years, really complicated plots that go nowhere. In that sense you won't get any BIG reveal, but you will get satisfaction of watching the story unfold.
The acting from all the character is pretty solid, and our main character gets really well treated, and she always delivers.
Apart from that, the story does suffer some twists and turns and it ends up being really confusing. But I applaud them for their simplicity.
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the story is beautiful
I think it's the best Korean series I've seen, the story catches you in every episode. I loved it, I loved the good characters lol. the story is magnificent. I would watch this drama a thousand more timesI enjoyed every second, every minute, every hour. Now I listen to the soundtrack and I have a lot of nostalgia, I will always remember this story, and I think it is my favorite of all the ones I have seen.
I recommend it to see with your families! I saw it with my mother and we were both fascinated
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This review may contain spoilers
I am a sucker for gender bender dramas, and this one is done well. Park Eun Bin is solid as steel as she maneuvers the political machinings of the royal family as a pretend monarch. Rowoon is decent but not outstanding as the Royal tutor loyal to his King. The supporting cast did a better job than Rowoon, even the child actors playing their younger selves. Kudos especially to rookie actor Nam Yoon Su who played the brooding noble pining for his cousin. The plot, while intricate, was a bit predictable, especially the anti-climactic ending. Despite this, this drama was an easy and enjoyable watch for me. Was this review helpful to you?
Please watch this, I didn’t want it to end.
This was so addictive, I was clinging onto Netflix waiting for the next episode, then I knew once it was needed I had to wait a whole week till it was back. The music is so beautiful I am in the process of learning then in Korean, which is quite a feat as I am English. It stays in your memory long after it finished. I actually missed the actors.It keeps you on the edge of your seat. An in the end well I was crying my eyes out because it had ended, and because of the story. It twist and turns till you have no idea how it’s going to end. At one point I think I forgot to breathe.
The costumes are stunning, whoever made them needed an award. Made me laugh, cry, smile and utterly sob, so much that I went on a zoom meeting when this episode aired and I couldn’t speak for crying, they thought something dreadful for real had happened.
Watch this drama you won’t be disappointed.
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Great introductory saeguk
This is a great historical drama to start out with for those who haven't really watched any and are worried about the roles and terms being difficult to follow. It has some cliches but it doesn't make them seem overbearing and if anything it actually helps the drama be more understandable which, as someone who had not really watched saeguks before, I found very enticing. The plot is more than the politics.I know a lot of people complained that this drama got draggy, but I completely disagree. In fact, I feel like this one of the best paced kdramas that I've ever watched. I really love slow burns and I think TKA dedicated the perfect amount of time to the backstory, to the political tensions, and to each character. Not once did I think that the story wasn't moving forwards or was leaving me confused — there was a brilliant balance between very tension-filled moments and domestic, comforting scenes.
I think the story was fleshed out really well. There are some questions I have left near the end and I found some of the extended fight scenes a little meh and lacking in substance, but overall I think this drama was really well-written and well-acted. The ending was really beautiful and bittersweet and I think the story couldn't have gone any other way.
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It's one of those dramas that lives from its characters as there were many multi-layered ones who drove the story forward and whose cast did really good in portraying them. It's rare that I don't look for flaws in at least one or two actors/actresses. I just enjoyed all of them, the leads, the second leads, the side characters, the villains.
I often have concerns when it comes to characters pretending to be the other gender. And even though I started doubtfully, Park Eun Bin convinced me otherwise. She did really well in portraying someone that had to hide her gender for years, starting to feel more comfortable in men's clothes and acting way tougher than one would expect, so that it would lead to a natural rough behavior. In the end I found it somewhat funny but totally fitting that in her developing relationship with the ML, she was the strong one while Jung Ji Woon was the softer counterpart. She took the initiatives while he followed. And he definitely cried more than her, lol. BUT he never felt unmanly or something. Rowon achieved a good balance between his character's soft side and his strong/brave moments. And he was a good equivalent to Park Eun Bin.
At some point in earlier episodes I started to wonder why she continued to pretend to be someone else, since it was such a toll on her. But later on I realized that everyone just wants to live. And don't always need an answer to everything. Sometimes things are just like that without any deep reason.
One thing I'd complain about would be the part where people from Ming were visiting. They hinted so much to another back story that I actually expected them to make use of that in later episodes but they never did, which is quite sad. I would have loved to see as to what that part might have led.
And the music... In my humble opinion, I thought it was too weak and didn't support important scenes well enough. But that's just me.
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Disappointing
I don’t know what happened in this drama. The first two episodes were really good and the story had all the potential to be developed. However after the ep 3 until the ep 16/17 nothing happened. It was like I was watching the same thing over again. Even though the actors were good, the screenwriter of this show didn’t do a good job. I didn’t drop because I hate to drop things. it would be a waste of time to watch 10 episodes and just left it there. The end of the drama was not captivating at all and pretty boring. Didn’t understand why she survived after taking the poison. I don’t understand the hype and I don’t get why it got an Emmy.Was this review helpful to you?
It has its ups and downs
Like most dramas, I think this show starts out strong, but looses momentum as it continues. There's definitely some pacing issues towards the end and the second half becomes draggy and kinda boring. I just don't know if this show needed 20 episodes. Some conflicts take too long to be resolved, while others get a solution out of nowhere.The story mainly focus on the characters and plot development, while the main couple takes a backseat role most of the time, specially as the drama goes on, but this becomes a problem since the plot starts to show some holes and inconsistencies. Certain choices and circumstances just don't make sense or go completely unexplained whatsoever. The last episode had an interesting tone, but I was disappointed with how everything turned out.
Despite the flaws, this drama has good elements and interesting moments. First I think the acting is pretty good overall and I really think the fl looks convincing as a man, unlike other historical dramas with a gender-bender trope. The main couple has chemistry, even if not explored to the fullest and some moments between them feel a bit underwhelming, but they're still cute together.
Although The King's Affection has a lot of tropes that have been done already, they stil work since they're well executed (mostly in the beginning). I specially liked to see how being forced to pretend to be a man influenced Dami's personality and that she was just as smart and strong as the other man around her.
All in all, this drama has potential but some parts are harder to stomach, mainly for being boring. I enjoyed watching most of the time, but it's definitely not a show that left a strong impression on me, I'd recommend you to give a try if you like lighter historical dramas and has some time to spare.
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This review may contain spoilers
This was fun to watch and the costumes are beautiful
It was sort of cheesy at times but over all it was fun to watch. I really loved the costumes of all the characters. I am upset about the romance since the pairing I was really rooting for did not happen. I’m so sad that she did not end up with Lee Hyun since he was an incredible character and really deserved her. Jung Ji Woon was pathetic and annoying but unfortunately since they were each other’s childhood love they could not grow to love people who would have been better pairings for them . It was very disappointing.Was this review helpful to you?
The music is what I like most about this drama, each soundtrack is rendered to fit perfectly in every single frame, arousing my sentiment to the fullest whenever I tune in for the show. The female lead is born for this role, her eye acting always left me speechless and it just got better every episode.
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Should have been 16 episodes!?
I read some other reviews that said it gets dragged and I have to agree! It gets dragged to the point you want to drop it. I personally dropped it for almost a month and decided to finish it today because I had 5 episodes left. I managed to finish it because I put the speed on 1.5x otherwise I would have dropped it completely.I'm actually dissapointed because I was excited about this drama from the 1st episode. The story is good but 20 episodes are too much, there are many fillers with some side characters, I personally wanted more romance between the main leads I would love more scenes of their "forbiden love". There are also many scenes that are in slow motion which gets annoying.
I really like Rowoon and Eunbin and their chemistry was good but I left with the feeling I didn't see much together. Eunbin's acting was excellent btw.
Overall only the first and last 3 episodes are the best but if you like historical dramas you might like all episodes, it's not a bad drama.
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The only thing I had a hard time with was getting confused on certain royal family members and members of the court. This may be just due to my lack of experience with Korean historical dramas. I would’ve liked a family tree of the royal family.
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